Taste Tester: Organic vs. Inorganic

Broad Question

Do people think that organic food tastes better or inorganic food?

Specific Question

Do people give organic buttered popcorn or inorganic buttered popcorn a better taste rate?

Hypothesis

It is hypothesized that people will rate inorganic food with a higher taste score than organic food.

Graph of Hypothesis

Variables

Independent Variable:

type of food- organic vs. inorganic

Dependent Variable:

which food as person rates higher

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

how many people, type of food being tested, amount of food, size of food, kind of food

Vocabulary List That Needs Explanation

organic- noting or pertaining to a class of chemical compounds that formerly comprised only those existing in or derived from plants or animals, but that now includes all other compounds of carbon.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/organic?s=t

artificial (inorganic)- made by human skill, produced by humans.

from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/artificial?s=t

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General Plan

An experiment was conducted to see if people found that organic or inorganic foods taste better. 20 kids were given two different types of popcorn, tasted them, and rated them on a scale of 1-10. It was conducted on the 12th of March in the science room during class. The food type was varied by choosing buttered popcorn, Nature’s Place organic butter flavor microwave popcorn and Pop-Secret butter flavored microwave popcorn. The observations seen while conducting the test were the testers reactions to each piece tasted. After all data was collected, the favored type of popcorn was measured by totaling all the points for each type. The median score for each kind was also calculated and recorded. Problems were prevented by making sure that every tester was not allergic to any ingredient in the popcorn and that they were the same exact type of food being given to each tester. Also, the given foods had to be similar in size, shape, and condition(one piece couldn’t be burnt, and another cooked well).

Potential Problems And Solutions

allergies- a tester may have an allergic reaction

Safety Or Environmental Concerns

none

Experimental Design

Resources and Budget Table

Resource	Cost
Nature’s Place organic butter flavor microwave popcorn- 10.5 OZ box	$2.49
Pop-Secret butter flavored microwave popcorn- 9.6 OZ box	$2.69
25 survey sheets for serving the chips and rating them	FREE

Data Table

Type of Popcorn	Total Taste Rating	Median Test Rating (on a scale of 1-10)
Nature’s Place organic butter
Pop-Secret butter

Time Line

February 29- Complete design draft

March 2- Complete final design

Before March 5- Buy popcorn and complete design

Week of March 5- Test on family members

March 12- Conduct during class time

After March 12- complete all data analysis; total score and median

After March 14- Complete results and conclusions write up

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Background Research

• organic- way farmers grow and process agricultural products- fruits, grains, vegetables, meat, dairy
• encourage soil and water conservation and reduce pollution
• farmers who grow organic food don’t use conventional methods to fertilize, control weeds, or prevent livestock disease
• organic things have carbon in them- the building blocks of life
• organic things have carbon in them- the building blocks of lifeThomson Reuters just released the results of a poll they completed and said that a majority of the U.S. population (58%) prefers organic food.Aside from the fact that this report is a serious victory for organic advocates, the data is truly fascinating. What stuck out to me the most was that there is a clear preference for organic food by more educated and younger people. Key highlights include:
• Nearly 63% of people under the age of 35 prefer organic food.
• 38% of people over 65 prefer non-organic food.
• 31% of people prefer non-organic food.
• 56% of people who make $25,000 or less and 60.8% of people who make more than $100,000 both prefer organic food
• 63.5% of people who have a college degree or more prefer organic food while 52.7% of people who have a high school degree or less prefer organic food.
• 34.2% of people are concerned about toxins in non-organic food.
• 12.9% of people believe that organic food tastes better.
• 17.2% believe that organic food is better for the environment.
• Organic food is food grown or raised without the use of synthetic (chemically formulated) pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or fertilizers. This method of farming allows foods to grown in nature as they were intended. Consider that conventional farmers in the United States spray 2 billion pounds of pesticides a year on crops
  
  

References

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/organic-food/NU00255
__http://livingmaxwell.com/58-prefer-organic-food__
__http://www.veganorganiced.org/are-organic-foods-healthier-than-non-organic.html__

Detailed Procedure

Written instructions:

1. Microwave the popcorn, cooking each bag for 2 ½ minutes
2. Place two pieces in each are on the test scoring sheet
3. Hand template to 20 testers (prepared with a pencil for scoring)
4. They will read the scoring paper (which will instruct them on what to do)
5. Each tester will taste the piece labeled “1” first (I will have a separate paper telling me which chips are which on each template)
6. Let the testers taste each piece and rate them on a scale of 1-10
7. If they did not get an accurate taste, give them another test scoring sheet
8. Collect their test scoring sheets
9. Total the scores for each type
10. Find the median score for each type
11. Complete all other necessary papers and questions

Photo List

1. A picture of the test survey sheet
2. A picture of the Pop-Secret brand popcorn
3. A picture of the Nature’s Place brand popcorn
4. A picture of the popcorn on the test survey sheet
5. A picture of all the survey sheets ready to be handed out
6. Pictures of the survey sheets being handed out
7. Pictures of the testers tasting each piece

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Results

Results Paragraph

An experiment was conducted to see if students thought that organic popcorn or non organic popcorn tasted better. The results showed that the artificial popcorn was the favored type. Out of a possible 200, the organic scored a total of 123.5 votes and the artificial kind scored a total of 152 points. The average score for the organic kind was 6.175 while the average for the non organic was 7.6 out of a possible 10. The median for the inorganic was 8 and the median for the organic was 6. The graphs show that in some cases the inorganic scores were almost double what the organic were scored. Five out of twenty kids favored the organic popcorn over the inorganic popcorn.

All Raw Data

Click on the different tabs to view each table.

Graphs

Photos

A subject rating the popcorn.

A subject tasting the popcorn.

A test sheet ready to be handed out.

A subject tasting the popcorn.

Inorganic popcorn bag.

Organic popcorn bag.

Inorganic popcorn box.

Organic popcorn box.

The sheet that told which test sheet had which food type in each box.

The test sheet ready to be handed out.

Test sheets ready. (continued)

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Conclusion

An experiment was conducted to find out if students thought organic popcorn or inorganic popcorn tasted better. The independent variable was the type of food- organic and inorganic. The dependent variable was the score given to each type. The results of the experiment clearly showed that the students favored the inorganic popcorn over the organic popcorn. This is exactly as was hypothesized. The total score of inorganic was 28.5 points higher than the total for organic.

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Discussion

An experiment was conducted to find out if people found if organic or inorganic food tasted better. The question asked was, “Do people give organic buttered popcorn or inorganic buttered popcorn a better taste rate?” By conducting the experiment, it was found that inorganic popcorn, or artificial popcorn, was given a higher taste rating. The average score for the organic popcorn was 6.175 and the average for the inorganic was 7.60. Only five out of twenty subjects thought that the organic popcorn tasted better than the artificial. It was hypothesized that the testers would think that the inorganic kind tasted better than the organic. This hypothesis was supported by the data. The research that was conducted before the experiment took place showed that 58% of the United States population found that organic food tasted better than artificial food, although only 12.9% of these people actually think the healthier option tastes better. Why do people prefer the unhealthy option taste-wise? That led to more research.
Junk food contains more salt and/or sugar than organic food. Salt and sugar are very appealing to the taste buds. A study concluded that fast food can be as addicting as heroin. Although it was conducted with rats, the scientists believe that it can be linked to humans. The “pleasure-center” in each rat’s brain was overstimulated from the fast food just like a heroin addicts is when they are on drugs. The rats required more and more fast food to feel normal. "When the animal over stimulates its brain pleasure centers with highly palatable food, the systems adapt by decreasing their activity. However, now the animal requires constant stimulation from palatable food to avoid entering a persistent state of negative reward", as Paul H. Kenny said about his experiment.
Back to this experiment. The most common trend that occurs in the data is that 75% of the test group liked the taste of inorganic better. If another experiment were to be conducted to see if people liked organic or inorganic for its health, coming from research, the majority most likely would choose organic. When this was being conducted, the testers did not know which popcorn was organic and which popcorn was inorganic. If there were to be a follow up experiment on this one, the popcorn could be given with labels saying "organic" and "inorganic". This experiment could find out what happens when people know that they are eating healthy food. Do they like organic food better when they know they're eating it?
Only one problem arose in the design of this experiment. Originally, it was to be tested using potato chips. When it came time to purchase them, the store didn’t have them in stock. The food had to be changed to popcorn. One problem occurred while the experiment was being conducted. A few of the testers saw the popcorn bags, which were supposed to be hidden, and didn’t like that one was organic. They were the only few that saw this, but they had already handed in their taste templates so the results were not affected. To improve upon this experiment, the bags of popcorn could have been hidden or disguised. Overall, it went smoothly and accurately.
The knowledge gained through this experiment could be a benefit to society. Scientists and nutritionists could use the information found and possibly come up with a way to make organic food taste better, still keeping it healthy. In the future, people could look at this experiment and think about their lives a little bit. Although artificial foods taste better, they are grown and raised with human-made pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers. Organic food lets nature take its course and doesn’t have chemicals added to it.

Benefit to Community and/or Science

Included in discussion.

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to find out if students thought organic popcorn or inorganic popcorn tasted better. Twenty students were given a test sheet that had the instructions and the popcorn on it. They tasted each type and rated it on a scale of one to 10. Once all the data was collected, it was totaled, averaged, and the median was found. The independent variable was the type of food- organic and inorganic. The dependent variable was the score given to each type. The results of the experiment clearly showed that the students favored the inorganic popcorn over the organic popcorn. This is exactly as was hypothesized. The total score of inorganic was 28.5 points higher than the total for organic. These findings were key because they can lead to other experiments to find out more complex things.